Paul Caouette, son of David Caouette, who was killed in the mass shooting at Salon Meritage, at the location of the future memorial site planned to honor the eight victims of the 2011 shootings in Seal Beach on Tuesday. Plans for the heart-shaped memorial include a quiet place to reflect by the ocean.

Paul Caouette, son of David Caouette, who was killed in the mass shooting at Salon Meritage, sits at the location of the future memorial site planned to honor the eight victims of the 2011 shootings in Seal Beach on Tuesday. Plans for the heart-shaped memorial include a quiet place to reflect by the ocean.

The location for the future memorial site planned to honor the eight victims of the mass shooting at Salon Meritage in 2011 overlooks the ocean in Seal Beach on Tuesday. Plans for the heart-shaped memorial include a quiet place to reflect by the ocean.

The location for the future memorial site planned to honor the eight victims of the mass shooting at Salon Meritage in 2011 overlooks the ocean in Seal Beach on Tuesday. Plans for the heart-shaped memorial include a quiet place to reflect by the ocean.

Adam Gardiner, 36, resident of Old Town

Linda Bender, 49, resident of Old Town

Seal Beach Police Department Chief Joe Stilinovich joined the force after assisting in the aftermath of the 2011 shooting.

After two years of planning, fundraising efforts are finally moving forward for a memorial to victims of the Salon Meritage shooting.

But the memorial’s long and occasionally fraught design process has family members of the victims feeling that Seal Beach residents are trying to erase the tragedy from the city’s history by dialing back plans for the memorial, estimated to cost $100,000.

No public memorial service is planned for the shooting’s second anniversary Saturday, according to Councilwoman Ellery Deaton. Instead, the families are being left to plan private remembrances.

“I feel like I get support in a lot of different areas, but all in all, I think the city would like this to go away,” said Paul Caouette, whose father was shot in a car outside the salon. “That’s one of the things that I have a hard time with.”

From many residents’ point of view, the city is balancing a desire to move out from under the shadow of the mass killing – the largest in Orange County’s history – with the need to honor the pain still felt by family members of the victims.

“The city has been trying to take care of its business and make sure that the victims aren’t forgotten, that they’re memorialized,” said Deaton, the Seal Beach official family members said has been most supportive. “City business needs to move forward.”

Caouette served with another family member on the committee that developed the memorial’s design: a colorful, concrete heart incorporating benches that would commemorate the shooting spree that took eight lives on Oct. 12, 2011. The memorial will be built on a secluded patch of Eisenhower Park at Eighth Street.

“It’s very much a community remembrance,” said Tim Kelsey, Seal Beach’s recreation manager and the official in charge of the memorial committee.

The committee was formed two months after the shooting and met as recently as Monday. The relatives of the shooting victims who were interviewed for this story said they were mainly happy with the meditative location.

But Rooney Daschbach, whose sister died in the salon shooting and who served on the committee, said residents suggested low-profile locations for the memorial to try to hide it away.

People who were once passionate about the memorial will find it less of a priority as time passes, Daschbach said, and it “is going to be less and less on their radar.”

One flashpoint that colored the perception of the memorial process for family members was when a proposal to place the memorial on the beach at First Street was shouted down by neighbors. Caouette said it happened at a public meeting at City Hall about six months ago.

“A couple of those residents that lived right there were very verbal about not wanting to have a ‘graveyard in their backyard,’” said Paul Wilson, whose wife was killed in the shooting. “They’ve insulted me and family.”

Daschbach called their words “irritating,” though he didn’t support the memorial going at First Street.

“That was pretty hard to listen to,” Caouette said. “They showed up at several of the committee meetings. That was said a few times, which – I don’t think it represents a graveyard at all. I think it represents how the community came together.”

Asked if disparaging comments about a graveyard were made, Kelsey replied: “Some people down there did have concerns about having it be in front of their homes.”

He noted that the location was taken off the table after hitting a snag with the California Coastal Commission, which the family members noted as well.

Caouette and Daschbach both pointed out the city’s continued generosity in coordinating fundraising and support of the families, including a $400,000 victims’ fund.

“We’re very appreciative that they’re even going to do a memorial. We realize they didn’t have to,” Daschbach said.

In fact, it’s not unusual for memorials to take many years to be erected. The Columbine Memorial Committee met regularly between June 1999 and September 2007, when the structure made of ringed stone walls was dedicated, according to the Memorial Foundation’s website.

The Seal Beach memorial will likely be finished faster than that, as the committee’s work has moved into the fundraising stage.

A community event is being planned for the spring, likely to be hosted by Affliction Clothing of Seal Beach, Kelsey said. The company produced a line of T-shirts in 2011 that honored the victims, and it will design a new shirt to be released in a few weeks, he said

“There were a few factors that did take longer than we would have liked,” Kelsey said. “I’m happy that we got something that will be reflective of Seal Beach and something that will be reflective of the tragedy that these families went through.”

But for the families, the project has dragged on longer than it’s needed to, and the graveyard remarks are indicative of a larger trend.

Wilson said it seemed that Seal Beach was tired of embracing the families so long after the shooting. He compared it to his experience counseling victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn.

“They do not forget them and they won’t let it be forgotten,” Wilson said. “I felt very slighted by the city of Seal Beach.”

VOICES

Linda Bender, 49, is a resident of Old Town. Her sister is friends with the owner of Salon Meritage:

Should there be a public ceremony to commemorate the two-year anniversary?

I do. I think the intensity of it merits that. It was a massacre, a full-on massacre that was unprecedented for anywhere near here…It should be an annual thing.

Is it time for Seal Beach to move on?

I didn’t get the feeling that they are moving on. Everywhere you go, you see stickers.

Adam Gardiner, 36, is a resident of Old Town. His girlfriend worked above the salon:

Should there be a public ceremony to commemorate the two-year anniversary?

I don’t think it needs to be that big of a reminder. I really think the families should grieve in their own ways…They might feel forced to join the rest and grieve publicly. It’s kind of a pickle.

Is it time for Seal Beach to move on?

No, I think that’s something that’s going to go down in history. I think the city likes to show how resilient it is.

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